Emmy award-winner Linda Dano is the only actress to have played the same
character on four different daytime dramas -- simultaneously!!! Linda's
character, "Dr. Rae Cummings", travels through all the ABC daytime dramas
and is known for her warmth and caring. Linda shares these traits with
her character. In addition to her work to raise awareness about Alzheimer's
disease, Alzheimer's patients, and their caretakers, Linda Dano has been
a champion for osteoporosis education. Here she is with Dr. Donnica at
the National Osteoporosis Foundation Gala (October 2000) where she received
an award for her efforts.

Caring for those with Alzheimer's Disease

Linda recently was a radio guest on "Dr. Donnica's Women's Health Report"
discussing her real life role as a care-giver to her father who had Alzheimer's
disease, and her mother who had been suffering the effects of caring too much.
That interview is abstracted here.

Linda: "My father had Alzheimer's, and because of the trauma
that I went through and my mother went through, I want to share my story to
help everybody else so I can spare them from going through it. . .It was enormously
difficult for my mother and I to see my father deteriorate the way he did. The
strain was different for my mother and me. I went right to food, gained 50 pounds,
and my mother went every date to see my father. . .and I could see HER starting
to go under!

"My mother could NEVER have handled this all by herself. The one thing
that came out of this, was that I had saved my mother. I gave her a new life,
a new direction. . .she had help, support, she never felt isolated or afraid
the moment she came and lived with me".

Dr. Donnica: Linda, what resources are available for those caring for
loved ones with Alzheimer's disease?